Best Company For Russia

[NanciEA]

I just received my Viking brochure for 2013 & 2014 and they are introducing a new Russia trip entitled "Russia Explorer", which has three nights at a hotel in St. Petersburg and two nights in Moscow, with seven nights on the ship. There are only four trips in late Sept. and early Oct. and then numerous ones in 2014. I was curious because we are booked for their traditional "Waterways of the Czars" this year. I've read the comments about the traffic in Moscow and St. Petersburg and thought this might be an option, but like I said, we are already booked. Then I realized you would have to unpack and repack three times instead of one which is a hassle in it's self. So we will endure the traffic and remember that it's nice to be settled in on the ship for the entire trip. (Plus the complimentary wine and beer is only on the ship!)

[4774Papa]

I just received my Viking brochure for 2013 & 2014 and they are introducing a new Russia trip entitled "Russia Explorer", which has three nights at a hotel in St. Petersburg and two nights in Moscow, with seven nights on the ship. There are only four trips in late Sept. and early Oct. and then numerous ones in 2014. I was curious because we are booked for their traditional "Waterways of the Czars" this year. I've read the comments about the traffic in Moscow and St. Petersburg and thought this might be an option, but like I said, we are already booked. Then I realized you would have to unpack and repack three times instead of one which is a hassle in it's self. So we will endure the traffic and remember that it's nice to be settled in on the ship for the entire trip. (Plus the complimentary wine and beer is only on the ship!)

The packing and unpacking is not a big deal. You get to see more of the city by staying in the heart of the city.

[franski]

So we will endure the traffic and remember that it's nice to be settled in on the ship for the entire trip. (Plus the complimentary wine and beer is only on the ship!)

 

Travelling on a bus in Moscow certainly made us appreciate how easy it is to travel in and out of the "big city" close to us... (Toronto). We were in a bit of a traffic jam yesterday after dropping our daughter at the airport, but my DH just said... "It's better than in Moscow!!" :D

 

Being on a bus wasn't the best experience, but you do get to see some of the city outside of the hotel and major tourist areas. And, we did get to travel on the metro (easy to get to from the area where the boats dock...) - which was an experience we would have hated to miss.

 

Fran

[wiley1439]

Hi, We are doing this river cruise in June. Any comments on optionals? Any problems walking around by yourself? Can't decide if Moscow at night is worth it or should we go on our own. What about the canal trips in St Petersburg. What else did you do during free time?

Thanks

[wiley1439]

Hello, We are doing this trip in June with the Baltic extension. Any tips you can give us on optionals or what to do during free time would be great.

[franski]

Hi, We are doing this river cruise in June. Any comments on optionals? Any problems walking around by yourself? Can't decide if Moscow at night is worth it or should we go on our own. What about the canal trips in St Petersburg. What else did you do during free time?

Thanks

 

The canal trip in SP was included with our package... and it was wonderful. If the weather is good, I would certainly consider this optional.

 

We booked a tour through "Tours by Locals" in Moscow. We wanted to get out to the Ishmaylova Flea Market - so found a guide that would take us there, and act as "interpreter". He met us at the boat, and we took the subway out.

 

Fran

[pixiegirl-loves-travel]

My daughter and I cruised on the ms Russ from Moscow to St Petersburg last July. It was the coolest thing we ever did! Ours was a budget cruise, and we did most of the optionals and are so glad we did!

 

wiley1439- June is the white nights, so if you do Moscow by night, it won't be dark! Our cruise advised us against it as basically you'd be seeing what you saw during the day, lol! We took the St Pete's canal cruise and it was one of our best excursions. Do all the optionals you can- how many times will you visit Russia?

 

If you want to see pictures of our cruise and/or read the journal I kept during the cruise, here's the link:

http://lisaaroundtheworld.weebly.com/

[Wingtips56]

It looks like at least one poster here has decided to do the big ship Baltic cruise, with a port call at St. Petersburg. As far as that goes, there are quite a few companies that do 1-3 day shore excursions, searchable on the internet, and you can vet them in CC, TripAdvisor and Virtual Tourist.

 

The company I used was TJ Travel in St. Petersburg for a very complete 2-day tour. They can customize it to what you want to see, how active and for up to 16 people. I arranged an active tour for 16 people (there max van size) to bring the cost per person down. I filled it up through our Cruise Critic roll-call. It included lunches and early admission to the Hermitage museum, among the many other features. When we arrived into the Hermitage big ballroom, my group and guide were the only 17 people in the room! We were perfectly satisfied.

 

There were three or four other groups from our ship using TJ, while one group went with a "Four Baltic Pearls" package with SPB. Everybody seemed satisfied.

 

Note: I have no affiliation with any tour company or agency. This is just a post based on personal experience.

 

Steven